LiveScore’s Jim Munro gets you up to speed with the big talking points around the Formula 1 paddock ahead of the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.

Eight points separate championship leader Lewis Hamilton and his Red Bull rival Max Verstappen as the second half of the Formula 1 season roars back into action at Spa Francorchamps.  

Who will have benefitted most from the summer break?

Red Bull’s mechanics deserved some rest after working overtime at both the British and Hungarian Grands Prix, just trying to keep their drivers on the road.  

Sergio Perez suffered impact damage after spinning out of the Saturday Sprint at Silverstone while Verstappen’s drive dissolved during the opening lap of Sunday’s race after rocketing off the Northamptonshire circuit and into the barriers following a coming together with Hamilton. 

There was more first-lap woe at the Hungaroring, Perez being smacked off the track by a careering Valtteri Bottas, leading to his car’s retirement due to irreparable damage.

Verstappen suffered in the same incident as Bottas pushed Lando Norris’s McLaren into the championship contender, resulting in a lost bargeboard which caused significant performance issues. 

The Dutchman's taped up drive eventually limped home in ninth after Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification.

This catalogue of incidents led to Red Bull losing the lead in the constructors’ championship to Mercedes.

Factor in some pretty disastrous PR in the aftermath of the British Grand Prix when Red Bull management were demanding more punishment be dished out to Hamilton for his part in Verstappen’s crash and the break from the firing line couldn’t have come soon enough. 

After a chance to draw breath and reassess where they stand, Red Bull under Christian Horner will draw encouragement from six race wins already this season and should be back to their fighting best.

One word of caution though. Both Red Bulls are now fitted with their third Internal Combustion Engine each, the season limit, meaning any more changes for either driver will incur a grid penalty.   

Can Lewis Hamilton win his 100th F1 Grand Prix?

The simple answer is yes he can, but whether he will is another matter. There is no doubting his irrepressible desire to get back on track though and win the 100th Grand Prix of his career.

Hamilton said: “The break was definitely much-needed but it felt too long at the end. 

“I was definitely excited to get back to work and I’ve just missed working with the team, missed being in the car so I was definitely very keen quite early on to get back.”

F1 fans have so far enjoyed the tightest championship tussle for years but if Max Verstappen really is to prove his challenge can go full throttle, Spa Francorchamps will be the place to do it. 

Hamilton is a four-time Grand Prix winner in Belgium while Verstappen has managed just two third-place finishes — in 2018 and 2020 — so the seven-time world champion undoubtedly has the benefit of experience. 

But the record books count for nothing in the Dutchman’s eyes, it’s the seat you climb into at the start of every race that counts. 

Verstappen said: “The only advantage you can really have I think is just if you have a faster car.

“If you have seven titles or one or zero, at the end of the day when you have spent a few years in F1 especially more towards the front, like top-five, you know that you have to try and finish every race, you know you have to try and score the most available points every weekend."

 Will Ferrari grab their first win of the season?

The resurgence of the Prancing Horse has given the season some added pizazz. 

The iconic red liveried beasts have been threatening to steal a win all season, Carlos Sainz taking second place in Monaco while Charles Leclerc was a long-time leader of the British Grand Prix before being pipped to the flag by Hamilton. 

They certainly appear to have a much more competitive car in 2021 in the hands of two very talented drivers.

While Sainz is enjoying his debut season for Scuderia Ferrari, following up his first podium for the team in Monaco with a third-place finish in Hungary last time out, Leclerc has the look of a man about to pull off a first win for the Italian outfit since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix. 

Always guarded in his interviews and never one to make bold predictions, you still have the feeling he’s getting ready to pounce. Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, he has been no different.

Leclerc warned: “I think this particular track is on paper quite a difficult one for us.

“Having said that, we’ve had some quite good surprises this year already so hopefully we’ll have another good one this weekend and be more competitive than what we thought coming here.

“But on paper it doesn’t look like a strong track for us.” 

Hearing his downbeat assessment, you could almost forget that Leclerc’s first ever win in F1 came on this very circuit in 2019… in a Ferrari.  

Who has the best record around Spa Francorchamps?

If you are looking for a steer from the numbers, the pole-sitter has won five of the last six Belgian Grands Prix, the exception being Sebastian Vettel who drove to victory in 2018 from P2.

There’s a good chance we could see a winner from the front row then, unless Spa’s oceanic climate throws some cloud and rain into the mix, though perhaps nothing as extreme as the violent storms the area suffered in June which left some parts of the circuit looking more like a canal than a racetrack. 

Hamilton has enjoyed the Spa experience the most in recent years, with two pole-to-flag wins in the past four seasons, sandwiching a couple of second-place finishes. 

It did take the British driver a while to conquer the famous old circuit though, with just one win in his first eight attempts, that coming during his fourth season in 2010. 

The number gods appeared to be guiding Bottas to his first F1 win in Belgium. 

In the past four seasons he has finished fifth, fourth, third and second in that order. But any thoughts of him making the No 1 spot this year have surely been blitzed after the first-lap pile-up he caused in Hungary has earned him a five-place grid penalty here. 

Will there be any big changes to driver line-ups next season?

Now that Red Bull have announced Sergio Perez will continue to partner Max Verstappen next season, the main gossip around the garages concerns the futures of Bottas at Mercedes and Williams’ young gun George Russell. Could they be swapping seats in 2022?

It was perhaps cruel to wheel out both drivers for Thursday’s press conference and certainly foolish to think either one of them would give anything away.   

A familiarly tight-lipped Bottas said: “There's no news to share yet.

“Maybe I know something, maybe I don't but like I said there's no news to share.”

Russell was singing from the same songsheet, adding: “There's obviously been discussions over the summer break, but there's nothing to announce one way or another this weekend and probably not next weekend either to be honest."

If Russell was to step up to Mercedes to form an all-British team with Lewis Hamilton for 2022, it’s not a given that Bottas would jump to Williams. 

Alfa Romeo are yet to confirm their line-up for next year and with suggestions that Kimi Raikkonen may be considering bringing down the curtain on his 19-season F1 career, the Swiss-based team may be a better fit for Bottas.

There is no doubt regarding the future of two-time champion Fernando Alonso, who revealed it took him just one minute of the summer break to take up an option in his contract which ties him to Alpine for another year. 

The F1 veteran said: “I am very happy with the team, I’m very happy with the comeback and I’m looking forward so much to next year and the team apparently is happy with my job as well, so we took one minute to make the decision.” 

Are there any more changes planned for the 2021 race calendar?

Formula 1 has announced a revised calendar for 2021 on the eve of the Belgian Grand Prix.

There will now be 22 races in total, one shy of the original plan but it will still be a record number for one season. 

The Turkish Grand Prix has been moved back a week to October 10, the original date of the Japanese Grand Prix which was cancelled earlier this month. 

Races in both Mexico and Brazil have also been moved back a week while the November 21 slot is still to be filled after the rescheduled Australian Grand Prix has been scrapped for the second season running. 

Qatar could be a stand-in with the Losail International Circuit already staging two Moto GP races earlier this year and Indianapolis has also been mentioned as a possible alternative. 

Now that Turkey, Brazil and Mexico are all on the UK’s ‘red list’ of countries subject to the UK’s travel ban from August 5, there may well be more changes required before we get to the season finale in Abu Dhabi on December 12.